Re: Cheerleading and Democracy 101

[Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>]

  At 21:17 -0500 12/10/97, charles mueller wrote:
  >        Members of Congress, unless I've been misled, don't allow their
  >incoming mail to be trashed d.o.a., dead on arrival--whether by their
  >clerical staffs or computer programs.  It may be routed around but,
  >ultimately, it all lands on their desks.
  
  This is, of course, nothing but a fantasy.
  
  If you really want to pursue Democracy 101, wrest power from federal
  bureaucrats and return it to the American people. If you go the route of
  special interest lobbying, whoever has the most $$$ usually wins. Recent
  case in point: the criminal copyright bill about to become law, bought by
  the software industry and Hollywood, that makes sharing a few copies of
  Microsoft Office a federal felony: jail time and a quartermillion dollar
  fine. For both the person who lends the software and the person who copies
  it.
  
  This is not cynicism, BTW. This is stone-cold reality.
  
  -Declan
  (A Washington, DC political reporter)